


Country Christmas

by DWEmma



Category: Country Christmas - Loretta Lynn (songfic), Nashville (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 21:18:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5471081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DWEmma/pseuds/DWEmma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Juliette is still in the recovery facility for her Postpartum Depression, and is preparing to spend Cadence's first Christmas alone when she accidentally dials Rayna. Christmas fluff, barely any content, the Hallmark Christmas Movies of Nashville fanfic. Also ended up being "Country Christmas" by Loretta Lynn songfic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Country Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [moogle62](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moogle62/gifts).



“A good old country Christmas, that’s what it’s gonna be, with all the family gathered ’round our pretty Christmas tree...” Loretta Lynn sang out from the clock radio in Juliette’s room at the recovery center waking her up from a miserable sleep. 

“Your bastard husband left you while you were giving birth to one of your six damn kids, Loretta. Stop singing about bullshit happy families,” Juliette said as she picked up the radio and threw it against the wall, breaking it. 

She lay back down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. December 24th, and she was still in recovery. She was still not recovered. She was barely recovering. Inside her head she let out a scream of frustration about the fact that it was morning, about the fact that she was here, about the fact that she was clearly going to spend her Christmas in here, and how she couldn’t even expect Emily to come visit her on Christmas unless she threatened to fire her if she didn’t, which she might have to do, obviously, but it sucked that it was going to come to that. 

Juliette had an image in her mind of when she was big, fat, and pregnant last Christmas, and how excited Avery was for the idea of the next year, this year, being Cadence’s first Christmas. Well that was just fine. She wasn’t the one that was being so sentimental and fake about what Cadence’s life was going to be. That was Avery. Let him try to put together a Baby’s First Christmas worthy of a scrapbooking mom. It’s not like she’s going to remember any of it. She’s a baby. Juliette didn’t remember her first Christmas. Though with her mother, it was probably a little different than Avery’s first Christmas out in Ohio with his judgmental, overbearing, middle class, Midwestern parents. They probably wrote everything down in his little baby book, the same way Avery was going to do for Cadence. Juliette laughed as she pictured it. 

* *

“Deacon, you’re going to have to help Daphne with those lights before she tangles herself up in them,” Rayna called out from the kitchen, as she unloaded packaged deli foods from the grocery bags. She might not have the time to cook a Christmas dinner for her family, but she’d be damned before she had caterers show up with a dinner cooked when the Whole Foods deli would package it all up for you and let you pretend that you did it yourself. 

“Ray, I’m kinda busy getting the tree to stand up straight,” Deacon grunted, and Rayna sighed. She couldn’t remember the last time they’d put up a tree themselves in her house. Teddy wasn’t exactly a DIY sort of husband, but after the wrath the girls had given her for that fake Christmas set-up they had to do for TV when she was with Luke, when Deacon insisted that he had always put up his own goddamn tree, and he’d be goddamned if she was going to hire someone to do something he had done every damn year since he became a man, she decided that this battle was a good one to sit out. Though from the grunting and swearing she was hearing in the next room, she now regretted that decision. 

“Do you need me to get someone in here to help?” she called out as gently as she could manage, knowing that this perfectly reasonable suggestion would be received as a threat to her fiancé's manhood. 

“Rayna, I’m perfectly capable of...God Fucking Dammit that hurt!” 

“Alternatively, do you need a bandaid? A doctor? An emergency room?” She knew she was getting sassy, but she had been so right about hiring someone to at least put up the tree and the lights. It’s hanging the ornaments that creates Christmas spirit and tradition, not the manual labor portion of the activity. But spending money hiring someone to do something that Deacon has ever done himself is not in his comfort level at the moment. She’ll get him used to it. 

“I’m fine. This tree is just...taller than the ones I usually get, is all,” he grunted. 

“Well vaulted ceilings...” 

“Dwarf normal sized trees, you told me,” Deacon said, and then there was a long moment of silence. 

“You okay, Babe? Daphne, can you make sure that Deacon is fine?” 

“He’s fine, Mom, though there are a lot more needles of the carpet than usual,” Daphne called out, breaking her concentration from untangling some vintage lights, the kind where the bubbles go through that colored liquid that he had found in a box when he cleaned out Beverly’s place that he remembered from his childhood and insisted that they use that year. “Hey Mom, if one of these breaks, I’m I, like, going to die of mercury poisoning or lead poisoning or something?”

“No, you’re not, but Deacon really should help you sort those so that none of them break and stain anything,” Rayna said, finally getting the last of what would be Christmas eve and Christmas dinner into the refrigerator and walking into the living room to discover a slightly tilted tree and a pile of needles on the carpet, and Daphne literally sitting in the middle of a pile of completely tangled vintage lights. 

“Nuh uh,” Rayna said. “Y’all get out of that mess. We’re going out to enjoy our Christmas, and I’m going to make a few calls and get some people over here to get this all straightened out. Go get your jackets. It’s a bit chilly out.” And she said it in the kind of commanding voice that people rarely ignore. Also, to be honest, Deacon knew that he was in over his head. 

* *

“Juliet, you can’t just lie in bed all day,” the nurse, Nancy? Nellie? Nora? said to her, and Juliette just shook her head. 

“I can do anything I damn want. It’s Christmas Eve. Also, in case you forgot, I’m Juliette Barnes,” Juliette emphatically stated. 

“Oh, believe me, Sugar, no one has a chance to forget about that, you remind us so often,” Nurse Annoying said. 

“Well I’m not getting out of bed. We don’t even have normal group today, since so many stupid other patients are have time with their families today.” 

“That’s why everyone who’s free is doing a big group Christmas Carol sing in the lounge with one of our volunteers today.”

“Eh, singing’s really no my thing,” Juliette said with a straight face, though to be honest, she’d never liked group singing. It either involved too much blending or too many out of tune voices.

The nurse looked confused for a second, but then decided to ignore the falsehood. “There’ll be cookies and milk, too.” 

“Oh, cookies and milk? Will Santa be there?” Juliette enthused. 

“Actually, he might just be coming on...” 

“The fact that you thought I was serious troubles me greatly,” Juliette took a big labored sigh. “Get out.” 

Nurse Nicole? actually got the hell out, but she’d probably be back. Juliette needed to figure out something to do today, because she sure as hell wasn’t singing Christmas Carols with a bunch of addicts and crazies who didn’t have families to spend Christmas with. 

Juliette picked up her phone to call Emily. A paid friend is better than no friend. 

She clicked on Siri, and said, “Call Emily,” but she must not have spoken very clearly, since Siri replied, “Calling Rayna James,” and then began connecting the call. 

“Dammit, no!” Juliette moaned, pressing the disconnect button and hoping to hell that Rayna’s phone was off or in airplane mode at the time, and she would never get the alert that Juliette called. But now Juliette didn’t even want to call Emily. Which was probably a good thing. Who knew where her loyalties lie, anyhow. Can’t trust anyone. 

* *

As Rayna, Deacon, Daphne, and by miracle, an actually somewhat festive looking Maddie loaded into the car in search of holiday lights, Rayna’s phone rang. Juliette Barnes. Just as the feeling of dread for Juliette’s state of mind that would cause her to make this call, considering the state she was in the last time she called this number washed over her, the phone had stopped ringing. Mistake call or even more cause to worry? Juliette may no longer be Rayna’s financial problem, but that didn’t wash the responsibility for the wayward girl from her soul. Especially not on Christmas Eve. Especially not with Juliette spending her daughter’s first Christmas away from her. (Rayna had tried to book Avery for a last minute guitar overdub only to learn that he had taken Cadence to Ohio to celebrate Christmas with his family.) 

“What’s the call, Ray?” Deacon asked. 

“It’s probably nothing. Juliette Barnes called but then hung up,” she said, with that Rayna concern in her voice. 

“Then you probably should call her back,” Maddie piped up from the backseat. 

“Y’all wouldn’t mind? I won’t be a minute,” Rayna said.

“It’s Christmas, Mom,” Daphne said, and this was all the answer anyone needed. 

Rayna clicked on Juliette’s name from missed calls, and put her phone to her ear. 

* *

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Juliette exclaimed, dropping her phone on the bed like it was hot when she felt it buzz and heard it start playing the same damn Loretta Lynn Country Christmas song that the radio had been playing that caused her to smash it against the wall. When had she made that her damn ring tone? Was she insane? That song was the worst. Christmas really did something to her head. 

But there was the phone, still ringing, and if she ignored it after actually calling it, knowing Rayna, she’d probably call the treatment center and have her checked on, because Rayna James is the freaking Mom to the World. 

She signed and picked up. “I’m fine, Rayna, just Siri not being able to understand my drawl, I guess. Meant to call someone else. Bye!” she said, in an attempt to get off the call before Rayna had a chance to ask her how she was. 

“Well good, sweetie, it’s good to hear from you anyhow. Merry Christmas,” Rayna said, and Juliette could hear Rayna’s girls in the background yelling out their Christmas wishes to her. And that began the tears. Cadence would never be near enough to her to yell messages at someone over the phone. Cadence would never call her mom, or know her as someone other than the woman who willingly signed away her parental rights to avoid bad publicity. And she’d have a right. Rayna had gotten pregnant sixteen years ago by a man who was just as bad in need of rehab as she was, and she had told lies and made choices to protect Maddie from what Deacon was like back then. And that’s how Maddie grew up to be a normal teenage headcase, and not the disaster that Juliette had been at her age. Rayna had done what Avery had done and excised the unfit parent from her daughter’s life. Now, Juliette knew that Deacon was back in Rayna’s life, but not after missing being dad for most of Maddie’s life. And it was hard to picture Cadence out that far. It was hard to picture Cadence at all, since her time with her had been such a blur of sadness and anger and confusion. 

“Juliette?” Rayna asked, in her overly concerned voice that just had to be fake, since no one actually was ever that concerned about another human being as her voice made her sound. 

“Mmm hum?” Juliette asked, for some reason having a hard time holding it together. 

“Are you somewhere safe? You’re at a...center, right? Somewhere where they’re taking care of you?” Rayna asked, sounding annoying. “Y’all spending Christmas with your people or...” Rayna’s voice drifted off as she did the math and realized that Juliette didn’t have people any more, not other than Emily. 

“I’m...fine. Never was one much for Christmas anyhow,” Juliette said. 

“What’s the name of the place? Deacon and Daphne and Maddie and I have just gotten into the car to go in search of something Christmassy to do. We’d love to drop by and bring some Christmas spirit to you and who all ever is there with you. 

“No, I’m fine,” said Juliette, but more out of practice than insistence, and Rayna new her well enough to know what it sounded like when she really meant it. 

“I’ve been kept in the loop of where you are, You don’t even need to give me directions. We’ll be right over,” Rayna said, as she hung up with Juliette before she had a chance to actually protest. She could call back if she really meant it. 

“Maddie, go into the house and get that Danish I bought. And actually, y’all, go get your musical instruments. I think I found a good place for us to do something Christmassy. 

* *

On the drive up to the facility, Rayna called to make sure she was welcome, and a combination of the Christmas spirit, the sadly ineffective attempts at the Christmas carol sing along that the volunteers were failing to make happen, Juliette’s unreachability, and Rayna’s fame caused them to practically beg them to come over. Deacon actually got the idea to give Scarlett a call and she hopped in the car with them. Juliette forced herself to get dressed, since if she wasn’t going to call Rayna back to insist that she not come, she knew she had to come out of her room when she arrived. 

When Rayna walked in and saw Juliette, she rushed over to her and swept her up in her arms. Juliette was so shocked that she let her. She felt tears come down her face like they did that night that she called Rayna just as things were starting to get bad, but this time she just let herself let go. 

Deacon and Maddie ignored them as they got out their guitars, Daphne pulled out her ukulele, and Scarlett sat down at the piano, and residents started to center in on the piano to see what was going on. 

And for the third time that day, with Rayna’s entire family band playing like family bands from 70 years ago, the same Christmas song haunted Juliette, but this time, she didn’t mind so much. 

“Mommie pop the popcorn and we string it on the tree  
Apples nuts and candy oh what a Christmas feed  
Daddy play the organ and we'll all sing Silent Night  
We'll have a good old country Christmas alright.”

And as she joined in singing, she looked at Deacon smiling at Maddie, the daughter he had deserved to lose when he was messed up, and Juliette realized that she might have a chance with Cadence. And a chance is all you need to smile when it’s Christmas.


End file.
